H.D., 'Helen in Egypt'

Julia Bloch, Dee Morris, and Annette Debo joined Al Filreis for this extended episode of PoemTalk, and their task — to give a sense of the whole of H.D.’s lyric epic Helen in Egypt through a discussion of five selected small parts — certainly pushed at the limit of PoemTalk’s scope and mode. But afforded an extra fifteen minutes of air time, and given what we like to think is a careful selection of poems, we hope and expect that new readers of this modernist epic — this radical revision of the Helen myth — will be intrigued enough to purchase a copy of the 304-page New Directions volume and explore further for themselves. And even those experienced with the open-ended ways of this long poem will find something new in these expert responses to each other and to Al’s questions.

The first three poems are sections 6, 7, and 8 of Palinode, Book One, pages 11–17 in the book — where (in all three) Helen is encountering Achilles in Egypt (not in Troy); they are near the ocean, on the coast in the dark. Then we move to a section later in the work, section 3 of Palinode, Book Four (pages 53–54 in the book). The speaker here is apparently Achilles, and he is recalling what happens to him when he met Helen’s gaze as she (or her specter) stood on the ramparts of Troy. Finally we discuss a poem near the very end of the book — section 7 of Eidolon, Book Three (pages 251–52 of the New Directions edition). Here the speaker uses the third person and seems to speak from Achilles’s point of view; this beautiful poem makes a notable distinction on the matter of Helen’s beauty.

(At left: H.D. visiting Egypt in 1923. She was present at the opening of King Tut’s tomb.) The Helen of Egypt recordings are the only recordings on PennSound’s H.D. author page, and apparently they are the only recordings of H.D. extant. She taped herself reading from this work in Zurich in 1955. Our five sections of Helen in Egypt take H.D. some seven and a half minutes to read, approximately three times the usual length of poems featured on PoemTalk. We ask our listeners’ indulgence as they wait for us to return with our commentary on the work. Here are links to the recordings and (in four of five sections) the texts of the selected poems:

BONUS TRACK: PoemTalk proudly presents an additional recorded conversation about H.D. featuring Annette Debo, Dee Morris, and Julia Bloch. With Al Filreis they discuss H.D.’s version of imagism, with a look in particular, toward the end, at the poem “Sheltered Garden.” Here is a link to the text of that poem, and here is a link to the recording of this additional discussion.

PoemTalk this time was engineered by Chris Martin and edited by Allison Harris. Special thanks to Annette Debo for making the long journey from western North Carolina to join us at the Writers House for these conversations. We recommend to all Annette’s scholarship on H.D., for example The American H.D. and her edition of Within the Walls and What Do I Love?

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Palinode, Book One, section 6:

How did we greet each other?here in this Amen-temple,I have all-time to remember;

he comes, he goes;I do not know what memory calls him,or what Spirit-master

summons him to release(as God released him)the imprisoned, the lost;

few were the words we said,but the words are graven on stone,minted on gold, stamped upon lead;

they are coins of a treasureor the graded weightsof barter and measure;

“I am a woman of pleasure,”I spoke ironically into the night,for her had built me a fire,

he, Achilles, piling brushwood,finding an old flint in his pouch,“I thought I had lost that”;

few were the words we said,“I am shipwrecked, I am lost,”turning to view the stars,

swaying as before the mast,“the season is different,we are far from — from —”

POEMTALK is a collaboration of the Kelly Writers House, PennSound, and the Poetry Foundation. PoemTalk’s producer and host is Al Filreis, our engineer is Zach Carduner, and our editor is the same talented Zach Carduner (whose predecessors were Amaris, Cuchanski, Allison Harris, and for most of the early episodes, Steve McLaughlin). PoemTalk is also available on iTunes. Click this link to subscribe; or go to your iTunes music store and type "PoemTalk" in the search box.

GATHERING PARADISE:At the end of each episode of PoemTalk, we gather paradise, commending one person or trend or happening in the poetry world. Here is a sampling of paradisal gathering across the episodes:[] Thinking about Williams's sense of the postindustrial way we live, Linh suggested we look at Mike Davis on "our living arrangements" (PT #1). [] Rachel celebrated the publication of the new bpNichol Reader, Alphabet Game (PT #3).[] Erica Kaufman commended David Trinidad's new book, The Late Show, in particular the poem "From the Life of Joe Brainard" (PT#5). [] Kenny Goldsmith happily pointed out a feature on UbuWeb in the March 2008 issue of Artforum (PT#6). [] Ron Silliman recommended a poetic sequence by Philip Whalen entitled The Children, based on photographs by Aram Saroyan (PT #8). [] C.A. Conrad recommends State of the Union: 50 Political Poems from Wave Books (PT #13). [] David Grazian, thinking of poetics-minded sociologists, wants us to read Loic Wacquant's Body & Soul: Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer (PT #18). [] Wystan Curnow wants us to look at jackbooks.com (PT #22). [] Frank Sherlock urges us all to read Joe Massey (PT #23).[] Natalie Gerber commends the Dodge Poetry Festival and its new-ish YouTube channel (PT #24).[] Joe Milutis suggests we all check out the work Danny Snelson has been doing (PT #25).[] We all praised Lorenzo Thomas's Don't Deny My Name: Words and Music and the Black Intellectual Tradition, esp. Aldon Nielsen who had the happy/unhappy task of editing it posthumously (PT #26).[] Jerome Rothenberg points us to two new anthologies: Mark Weiss’ The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetryand Cecilia Vicuna and Ernesto Livon-Grosman’s The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry (PT #27).[] Rachel Blau DuPlessis suggests Prismatic Publics: Innovative Canadian Women’s Poetry and Poetics, edited by Kate Eichhorn and Healther Milne, new from Coach House Books (PT #28).[] Linh Dinh recommends poet Mathias Svalina’s new book Destruction Myth(PT #29).[] Joey Yearous-Algozin lets us know about a new critical journal out of Buffalo called “Wild Orchids" (PT #31).[] Nada Gordon commends Brandon Brown’s three chapbooks: Tooth Fairy, The Orgy, and Your Mom’s a Falconress (PT #33).[] Bob Perelman encourages us to watch the recording of Laura Elrick’s March 2010 reading at the Kelly Writers House (PT #34).[] Sarah Dowling wants us to download Divya Victor’s book Sutures on Lulu (PT #35). [] Don Share is thrilled about Stanford’s new edition of Larry Eigner’s collected poems, four volumes of more than 3,000 poems reproduced in Courier font (PT #36). [] Julia Block is reading Philadelphia poet Kevin Varrone’s Passyunk Lost, out from Ugly Duckling Presse (PT #38).[] Tracie Morris recommends Sekou Sundiata’s jazz album The Blue Oneness of Dreams(PT #39). [] Jamie-Lee Josselyn reminds us about Joe Brainard’s PennSound author page; in particular, his “I remember” recordings (PT #40).[] Al Filreis suggests we check out Richard Sieburth’s new edition of New Selected Poems and Translations by Ezra Pound (PT #41).[] Fred Wah points us to the translation work that Italian-Canadian poet Louis Cabri is doing (PT #44).[] Charles Alexander is reading Amnesiacby poet Duriel E. Harris, out from Sheep Meadow Press (PT #45).[] Joan Retallack commends Caroline Bergvall on her new book Meddle English(PT #46).[] Jessica Lowenthal is enamored with Erica Baum’s project Dog Ear, some of which is available on Jacket2 (PT #47).[] Mike Hennessey tells us about CA Conrad’s video journal of contemporary poetry, Jupiter 88 (PT #50).[] Greg Djanikian would like us to watch the recording from Jane Hirschfeld’s visit to the Kelly Writers House (PT #52).[] Bob Perelman coins the term “high flarf” when recommending Ben Friedlander’s book Citizen Cain(PT #54).[] Katie Price suggests Craig Dworkin’s book Parse(PT #55).

From left to right, Jerome Rothenberg, Jeffrey Robinson, and Charles Bernstein discuss Robert Duncan for PoemTalk #27.